Poisonous Power
by PuppyPaw
Summary: The world's fastest hedgehog usually goes to great lengths to save the world, but this time he must go on adventure to save himself from certain death. These new powers are poisonous, Sonic… you were warned.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to SEGA.

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Sonic felt the heat of a massive explosion warm his back while he barely avoided disintegration. When he reached a safe distance, he skidded to a halt, turned around. Sonic's heart pounded rapidly while he observed the dark orange fires that spread out over the burning land. They were surrounded by black plumes of smoke, which filled the air around it. The greenery around the burning remains of the building was turned into ash within a mere second. It hurt Sonic to see beautiful nature get destroyed so suddenly; that forest was gone, forever. The blue hedgehog only avoided the same fate of the forest because of his speed, so he was alive.

Surely Eggman was dead this time, since there was no way the mad scientist could have avoided the explosion. Sonic had barely escaped the explosion, himself, so Eggman wouldn't stand a chance. Regardless of that, past experiences told Sonic that Eggman's death was unlikely and the scientist was probably planning his next evil scheme already.

Nevertheless, if Eggman returned, at least Sonic would have a few extra tricks up his sleeve. This was courtesy of the mad scientist himself. The very thing that was meant to kill Sonic only made him stronger. Sonic felt very proud of his new victory; another battle was won… even if it was a close call.

Merely a few minutes ago, Sonic stood in that new base and faced his enemy in yet another battle. As soon as the hero arrived at the control room in the centre of the base; the lights dimmed. The room was large and circular, measuring at about ten metres in diameter, and made of metal from top to bottom. Sonic could see a control panel to his left with the limited light available. There were two large, metallic doors on either side of the control panel, one of which Sonic came through. Eggman entered through the other.

The scientist was in a large robot, similar to past creations. Its body was round and robust with a large cannon in the middle, the arms and legs were short and sturdy, and the shoulders were topped with small cannons. Eggman was seated in his Eggmobile, which was parked at the head of the machine.

"Ah, Sonic, I knew you would turn up," said a voice both sour and familiar.

The blue hedgehog began to sweat with anticipation when he saw the unusual cannons at the top of the machine. The barrels were long and thin, with pipes leading to the main body of the machine where the power source and ammo was.

"I see that you've noticed my new invention. You see, Sonic-"

"Cut the explanation. Everything you make is the same; they all fail. Let's get this over with, Eggman." Sonic held out his fists and hopped on the spot playfully; he was more than ready to play with Eggman's new invention.

"Oh, but Sonic, this one's different."

Sonic's quit the playful teasing and stood still, regardless, his relaxed nature stayed. Eggman sounded extremely sinister; there was no humour in his tone. However, there was no time for Sonic to wonder about Eggman's mental state.

"Yeah right," Sonic scoffed, shaking off the brief stab of confusion. "How is it different? Does it stop you from sucking, because that would certainly help! What, did you think that you just grew the ability to stop sucking overnight, or have you forgotten how fast I am?"

Sonic put his words into action by zipping around the room like a turbo powered pinball, leaving dents in the walls. He wasn't showing off though, as he skidded around the machine; he searched for a weak spot.

Unfazed by Sonic's usual tactic, the doctor rumbled with sinister laughter. "For someone so fast, you're awfully slow on the uptake. Run all you like, Sonic. You'll never escape!"

Suddenly, the both metal doors closed. The sound of metal clanking sounded in Sonic's ears as the metal sheets closed over the exits, sealing them both in completely. Judging by past experiences, Sonic worked out that they would open again as soon as he destroyed the robot.

The tip of the barrel on the cannon began to glow a deep purple. Light was limited in the room, causing the dim glow of the gun to stand out more. The deep purple glow of the gun glinted off of Eggman's glasses. Sonic skidded to a halt in the middle of the room, and eyed his enemy with determination.

"Who's escaping?" Sonic teased. "I'm just here to take you down!"

Sonic's first attack rebounded and he landed on the ground. The hedgehog leapt to the side to dodge the first blast of cannon in the middle of the robot. Three more thick missiles followed the hero as he dodged their expected assault. Sonic felt like sighing; Eggman used the homing missiles again. Boring! Sonic thought. The hedgehog outran them with little effort and they exploded on the wall. Sonic turned around and looked at Eggman arrogantly, noticing the scientist's confident face expression. Not wasting a second of time, Sonic dived into the robot again at full pelt while the missile cannon was still open; trying his second attack.

Finally, a dent. Sonic found its week spot. The structure was weaker when its interiors was exposed. But something wasn't right. Eggman wasn't reacting to Sonic's arrogance. The mad man should have been having a tantrum by now. What was so different about this battle that made him so calm? Sonic thought it must have had something to do with the new weapon on the robot's shoulders.

Eggman fired another set of missiles. The blue one ran to the wall to his left, using the slight curves in the structure to his advantage, enabling him to reach the ceiling. Sonic felt his centre of gravity sway and change as he went upside down. The pressure in his head increased as the blood rushed to it. The missiles followed the same path as the speedy one and curved in the same way, flawlessly. They all followed him effortlessly, like metal to magnet. Sonic pushed himself from the ceiling when he got to the middle again, hoping to trick the homing technology. Unfortunately, gravity couldn't pull him to the floor faster than he could run. The sudden change in tactic was a big mistake as the hedgehog wasn't fully ready for it yet. He stumbled slightly when he hit the ground. The blue one escaped a millisecond before the missiles trashed the floor.

Looking flustered, Sonic stood up straight and shook himself to get back in the zone. Noticing he had his back to Eggman; Sonic turned around to face his enemy.

"Even when I mess up you can't get me," Sonic teased. "Are you failing on purpose?"

"Yes."

Sonic didn't expect this answer, nor did he expect the offence to happen simultaneously. It all happened so quickly that Sonic's thoughts couldn't keep up. When he realised what was going on; it was too late.

Sonic's pupils shrunk, his fur bristled, and a look of true pain fell upon on his face. The blue hedgehog took in a ragged breath of agony then dropped to his knees. The pain quickly spread from his chest to the rest of his body. His limbs were the last to feel it.

It was that purple substance. He'd been shot by it. Like a laser, it hit Sonic before he'd even realised it left the barrel of the cannon. The rest of the hero's body fell, and the palm of his hands hit the floor. Sonic shut his eyes tight and bared his teeth, breathing in sharply.

"Now, can I give the explanation?" Eggman asked snidely. Sonic couldn't even say no. "This is negative Chaos energy; it's attracted to positive Chaos energy, which your body is filled with. It followed you like a magnet. When it hit your arm it was absorbed into the rest of your body like positive Chaos, which is why it lethal anyway."

"What have you done to me?" Sonic growled.

"Replaced all of your positive energy with negative energy, which will kill you," Eggman said simply. Sonic gasped in pain again then cried out as it became too much to contain. "Hmm, I thought it would kill you a lot quicker than this… at least I get to watch you squirm in pain."

"I can't die… everyone's counting on me… n-no…" Sonic became weaker with every word. His eyelids became heavy, and his words became slurred. The hedgehog's limbs and the side of his face rested on the floor. His tired green irises looked up at Eggman, as if they were asking for mercy.

"You shouldn't have come to stop me. I wasn't even planning to take over the world. You saw my new base and decided to take action, well it was unnecessary and now you've lost your life," Eggman teased cruelly.

"I… hate you," Sonic choked then went silent. His eyes closed and his whole body became lifeless. The room was silent while Eggman took a moment to reflect upon his victory.

The two large doors in the room opened as Eggman turned his robot to leave. But Sonic's eyes shot open before Eggman came to face the door. The scientist noticed this and turned his body around because his machine wasn't fast enough.

"What!?"

The hedgehog, that was once lifeless, stood up with a smirk on his face. "You've done it for yourself now, Eggman!" he yelled out. There was a flash of purple, and a ripple of negative energy emerged from Sonic's body for a split second. The scientist's confidence turned to fear.

Sonic held out his hands in front of him, and a large ball of negative Chaos energy flashed into them. The orb became larger, soared straight into the robot's torso, and broke right through the armour and machinery inside. "What!? I made this out of reinforced steel!" Eggman cried out as he was thrown to the floor.

"These powers are stronger than steel," Sonic said in triumph and grinned. The hedgehog pointed another dark ball of energy at Eggman.

"If I'm going down, you're going down with me!" he yelled in a cowardly voice and ran over to the control panel. Sonic managed to hit the floor where Eggman once stood with his spear or negative energy; he didn't expect the man to move so quickly. The blue hedgehog sent another one, but by the time it hit the console it was too late. Eggman was thrown back by the blast that hit the console. Sonic watched as he began to pull himself up from the floor.

"SELF-DESTRUCT-SEQUENCE-ACTIVATED!"

Sonic's face filled with panic at that phrase. The hero darted around the remains of the robot then out of the door. He needed to find the exit.

"TEN!"

Sonic knew he wouldn't make it in time by taking the established route, and spindashed through the walls of the building. The purple energy mist leaked out of him as he spun and blasted through the walls, propelling him farther and faster. Sonic broke himself out of the building; into the green area around it. By then, the countdown was on its last few numbers.

"TWO!"

Sonic dashed into the distance. He didn't even hear the number one, only an explosion. Then felt the heat of the exploding building on his back, causing him to turn around to look at the damage.

Taking deep breaths of shock and fatigue, Sonic slowly made his way back home. He had a tale to tell his friends, and new powers to show off to them.

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Author's Note: This chapter has been edited to correct technical mistakes. Thank you to, Chaotic Hedgehog, Beyond an Anomaly, and Lord Kelvin for the constructive criticism. Thank you to all other reviewers for the praise. Finally, a special thanks to Knockabillar for beta reading this chapter.

If there is still a problem with my writing, please point it out in the review.


	2. Chapter 2

Sonic sped through the door of Tails' workshop in Mystic Ruins. The young fox was sorting out his tools and materials at the back of the room.

"Tails, you'll never guess what just happened to me!" Sonic exclaimed, unable to keep his excitement in any longer. Tails turned around from the mess at the rear end of the room in a hurry. Sonic walked up to him with a smile on his face while Tails waited for to hear what happened, looking concerned. "Try and guess!"

"Sonic, how can I guess what happened? Knowing the kind of adventures you get into you could have gone to an alternate universe where I'm a girl or jumped to the tenth dimension," Tails said irritably.

"How could I have done that in one morning?" Sonic asked. Tails raised an eyebrow.

"Anything's possible for you, Sonic," the fox smiled. Sonic sighed and decided to tell Tails what happened.

"Eggman gave me new powers!" the hedgehog exclaimed. Tails' took a step back and looked at Sonic questioningly.

"Sonic… you should be careful with those powers, they could be dangerous, especially coming from Eggman. Why would he do you a favour like that?"

"Hehe. That's the best part, he _wasn't _doing me a favour. He was trying to kill me with this negative chaos stuff but it did the opposite; it made me more powerful," Sonic explained.

"But Sonic, if it was meant to kill you, it could be harming you now!" Tails exclaimed.

"Don't worry!" Sonic said with lack of worry. "I'll be fine, it nearly _did_ kill me. I could be dead by now, but I guess my body accepted it."

Tails didn't like his friend's carelessness; he felt like Sonic was bringing himself to an early grave. The fox folded his arms and frowned at him.

"I thought you would take this better, Tails. Stop worrying!" Sonic exclaimed, and got exited again. "I can't wait to tell the others! I'm going to go out and test my new moves!"

Tails watched as the hyperactive hedgehog ran out of the door again without a care. He went to the window and watched as Sonic threw many dark balls of energy at the floor around him. "At least he thought to stay a safe distance from the workshop."

On his own, Sonic practiced powers he already knew; then tested for any others. There was the dark energy ball and the improved spin dash, but what else did he have? And how effective would these powers be with the chaos emeralds? Sonic felt giddy just thinking about it, he had more than just his speed and regular moves to use in adventures now. Even if it did make him comes across as dark.

Sonic's attacks slightly seared the grass around him. He didn't want to destroy anything, just test out his new moves. The blue hedgehog smirked when he thought of a power his rival used. Shadow and his chaos spear. Would Sonic have something similar to that? The hedgehog thought about it and held his hand out flat and a purple sphere appeared again.

"No-no-no," Sonic complained and shook his hand and it sizzled away; discarding what he didn't want. Sonic held it out to the side, as though he had a dagger in his hand and it appeared; a dark purple chaos spear. He cheered in triumph. It was small, but it existed. The hedgehog swung his hand as though he threw the spear and it hit a tree nearby, one of the smaller branches on the tree snapped and hung by the bark.

Sonic cringed then turned around to see Tails in the window of his workshop looking shocked. The mischievous hedgehog gave a nervous laugh then waved. Tails gave a look of disapproval. "Sorry buddy, I think I've damaged your tree," Sonic said sincerely, even though he knew Tails wouldn't hear him.

Sonic shrugged it off and turned back to the tree again. He would give his friend a real apology later.

The blue hedgehog began to shiver, he looked up to the sky. The sun vanished and the clouds came to say hello. This automatically made him feel somewhat miserable, but a bit of cold wouldn't get him down.

Drip.

Sonic sighed since it was raining, and a raindrop had fallen on his head. The hero hated the rain; he hated getting wet in general. This meant that he would have to go inside, even though he was enjoying himself and only getting started. Just one more, Sonic thought.

A sphere appeared in his hand when he stretched out his palm. Sonic gasped, this one was different. It had a tint of green to it on the top where the rain touched it.

Every drop of water that fell on it was repelled by the dark energy. Sonic waited for the rain to get heavier. He became wet, but so did the sphere, and the wetter the sphere got, the greener it became. Sonic gave a chuckle of interest; these new powers were perplexing.

The ball floating in Sonic's hand was almost emerald green all over. He shot it at he biggest puddle and an explosion of lime and jade splattered around it. All of the water from the puddle was repelled and thrown around it. Sonic stood to admire the energy fading away. It was the same colour as his eyes, which made the new powers feel personal to him. The shame was, he had to get it wet to make it this way.

The blue hedgehog trudged back inside. When he closed the door he gave his body a quick shake. Water droplets flew off of his fur and onto the floor and walls around him. Tails was still bust sorting out his tools, but still turned around when he heard the door slam. "Sorry about the tree Tails," Sonic said while rubbing the back of his neck.

"It's okay Sonic," Tails gave a friendly sigh and walked over to him. "I think you were right, these powers are benefiting you instead of harming you."

"Yep! I can't wait to tell the others! They're going to be so amazed!" Sonic said in excitement.

"When do you _not_ amaze people, Sonic?" Tails said smartly. "You even amazed me. When it started raining I noticed something, just before I went back to work."

"What? The green, isn't it so cool!?"

"Yes, and the fact that water is repelled from it. Sonic, if you're ever stuck in water again, you could use one of those balls as a shield!"

Sonic's smile grew wider at the ever expanding possibilities of these powers. He wanted to go and test it out, but not right now. The rain was too heavy and he would need the others to help him out of the water if it didn't work.

BOOM

Sonic and Tails ran to the window at the sound of an explosion in the distance, then screaming. "Tails, station square's under attack!" Sonic exclaimed and ran to the door; getting ready to head off to the smoke plumes in the near distance.

"Let's take the Tornado!" the fox jumped into action and opened the large garage door to the side and jumped in his plane. Sonic jumped on the wing as the mini jet started up and lifted off out of the small building.

As Sonic rode towards Station Square, one terrifying thought floated through his mind. Maybe Eggman wasn't dead.


	3. Chapter 3

Sonic's feet hit the ground as soon as he jumped off the left wing of the Tornado and stood on the tarmac of the city in need. He felt his heart rate increase and a strong sense of excitement inside of him. It was time to show whatever was terrorising this city who was boss! Tails flew his plane elsewhere to land it a distance from the danger, leaving Sonic alone to deal with it, which was exactly what the blue hedgehog wanted.

The blue blur rushed down the empty street, following a low rumbling sound in the distance. As he got closer, the sound turned into a feeling; Sonic could sense the ground moving and vibrating. Whatever was attacking the city was huge. He was thankful that most of the citizens had either gone inside or evacuated, because the hedgehog would have felt personally responsible if anyone were to get hurt or killed because he was too late.

Sonic skidded to a halt and looked up slightly. There it was, the large Eggman robot. Its body was round and hard, Sonic knew that the metal was strong and made to last as the heavy rain was simply bouncing off of it. The design was similar to the mech he had just defeated at the Eggman base. This one was different, it had no cockpit and no laser gun on the side. It was wide enough to fill the whole street, from pavement to pavement. The robot carefully turned a 90 degree angle to face Sonic when it noticed the small hedgehog. Its bright red eyes looked as though they were zooming in on Sonic.

"SONIC-THE-HEDEGHOG-LOCATED," it droned loudly. "MESSAGE-ACTIVATED."

Sonic's eyes widened as he heard the message start; it was Eggman's voice.

"I know how most of our battles end, Sonic, and if you can hear this, then it's ended as it always does. You won again, and I have been immobilised and or killed. Well done," Eggman voice message played miserably. "But I'm not going down without a fight. This robot was sent to automatically destroy Station Square as revenge."

The sound of a growl emerged from Sonic's throat; he was determined to not let innocent people suffer because of his own mistakes. It was time to put these powers into good use. Sonic leapt up and used his homing attack to get on top of the machine, but it's long metal arm slapped the surprised hedgehog away. The hero plummeted to the floor, scraping against the tarmac below him. The blue one got up, feeling even more angry and determined than before.

This time, he ran under the robot and took a U-turn, hoping to got on top of it from the back. Sonic had plenty of time when he got to the back. The robot took a lot time to turn 180 degrees to face Sonic. The hedgehog ran and jumped on top of the robot with his homing attack, to home in on abnormal lumps on the back and side of the metallic beast. Within five seconds, he was at the top, and the robot wasn't half way there. "Take this you piece of junk!" Sonic held out his hands and put them on the smooth metal below him.

There was a small explosion of green and purple and the top of the robot was smashed open. Sonic was thrown back and he slid across of the round top and off of the side. The hedgehog cried out in shock; he didn't expect to be thrown off by his own attack. He hit the floor abruptly, flat on his face, in a puddle. Sonic wiped the dirty water off of his eyes and rest of his face and got up from the floor.

The blue blur gasped as the leg came to the side and pushed him up against the shop wall he'd fallen beside. He wasn't quick enough to react and was crushed against the wall. The hedgehog groaned in pain, his torso was stuck between metal and brick, making it hard for him to breathe or move; at least his arms were free. Sonic looked at the metal contraption in contempt, his eyes narrowed and his teeth clenched.

"How about this?" he said sinisterly with his hand held out as though he was going to throw a dagger. He chucked it at the robot and it hit the side, making a hole in the side of the robot. "N-not what I wanted to hit…"

Sonic took in a painful breath and tried again. His ribs were hurting under the pressure so it was hard for him to concentrate. The desperate hedgehog hoped to hit the hinge of the machine but he was out of aiming practice. Another spear appeared in his hand, starting off purple then fading to green as the rainwater dripped on it; it looked as though green paint was pouring onto it. Sonic sent it again, but a cracking, sharp pain on his lower ribs stunned him and his spear hit the floor.

The hedgehog's eyes widened in pain and his stopped breathing. "D-damn it!" Sonic's hands grabbed the machine's large hand and he made another explosion. The robot's hand crumbled and Sonic was sent through the wall of the shop.

"Sonic!" Tails' voice sounded from outside of the shop. Sonic looked forward with a blurry eyesight and smiled. His friend had come to help him. "Sonic, you did it!"

Sonic groaned in confusion, he didn't recall defeating the robot, only damaging it.

"It filled with rain water and malfunctioned, look!" Tails pointed. Sonic squinted his eyes to see the robot on it's front, with water pouring out of it's top like a split drink. He gave a weak smile and chuckle and Tails helped him off of the floor. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… I don't think my injuries are serious. I nearly broke my ribs though," Sonic grunted as he walked beside Tails. "Maybe… i-if I just rest… I'll avoid needing any medical attention." Sonic hoped hard, he didn't like hospitals at all, and didn't want to go to one just because of a fight that didn't go exactly as planned.

Tails stepped away from Sonic in surprise. "Sonic, what's happening to you?" he panicked. Sonic looked down at his torso, he seemed to be glowing purple, and green where he was getting wet. The pain in his body faded away.

"I think I have healing powers," Sonic said breathlessly. "I thought really hard about getting myself better quickly, and it happened."

Tails was taken aback by this, surely this was all too good to be true. He could see that Sonic was getting very exited about it and looked very happy. But perhaps there was more to these powers, something Sonic was missing or wasn't telling him.

"Let's get home, Tails, in the warm and let the humans clean up this mess. It's their city and I did the dangerous work after all," Sonic joked and looked up, he stopped in his tracks.

"So, Faker. I saw those new moves of yours." Shadow the Hedgehog stood right in front of Sonic, not letting him pass easily. Sonic was silent, his smile turned to a scowl. "I bet they're no match for my powers."

"Oh yeah! If your powers are better than mine, why didn't you destroy the robot!" Sonic yelled, clenching his fists at his sides. Shadow and Sonic were locked in a stare of hatred and rivalry.

"Why would I want to help those humans? Besides, you had it covered," Shadow said confidently. "Where did you get those powers?"

"Not telling!" Sonic said stubbornly, he smiled teasingly and folded his arms. Shadow narrowed his eyes at the blue hedgehog.

Shadow put up his hands and pushed Sonic against the wall. "Tell me right now, Faker. Where did you get those powers!" Shadow growled in his face while holding his rival's shoulders against the wall.

Sonic's eyes narrowed and he wrapped his hands around Shadow's waist. The dark hedgehog looked at Sonic in discomfort. "Faker, why are you-"

"Want to know what these powers feel like on your insides?" Sonic threatened sinisterly. Shadow's eyes widened and he leapt back just as an explosion blasted from Sonic's hands.

"That's it Faker, you asked for it!" Shadow said while charging at Sonic. The blue hedgehog readied for his second combat of the day.

* * *

**Sorry for the long wait. **


	4. Chapter 4

Sonic acted quickly, and used his spin dash against his rival. He spun on the floor at full speed then jumped into his usual stance; a great burst of energy discharged from his body like a circle of fire. Shadow reacted to this quickly.

"CHAOS BLAST!"

Tails realised that he should fly to safety before he was caught in the fight.

Shadow's attack caused an explosion of orange fire and chaos power that destroyed the tarmac and concrete on the road around him. Sonic's anti-chaos energy of purple and green bounced off of it and the two of them were swung back by the shock wave caused by the collision. Sonic hit the floor on his back and Shadow, on his front. The both of them got up stoically, not wanting to show weakness to each other.

"GRR! Shadow, we don't need to fight this!" Sonic growled.

"Says the person who dealt the first attack!" Shadow hissed. "With a power that you're yet to tell me about!"

"I didn't attack first, you did! Don't you recall pushing me against the wall?" the blue one yelled.

"Hmph, I was not attacking; I was getting answers," Shadow said calmly and folded his arms. "I still want those answers."

"You're not getting answers. Why do you want to know, anyway?" Sonic asked. Shadow's frown got firmer and he looked even more irritated. "Aww, is Shadow jealous because I have fresh new powers that are better than his?" Sonic saw Shadow's eye twitch.

"Be careful, Sonic," Tails whispered from the roof of the building behind Sonic. "You know how much pride Shadow takes in his powers. He likes being the only one with chaos powers." Sonic smirked because Shadow was jealous, Sonic had put the ultimate life form in his place, and Shadow was hating it.

The blue hedgehog smiled teasingly at his rival, making Shadow's blood boil.

"Sonic! This isn't funny! I need to know where you got those powers!" Shadow said through gritted teeth.

"What? So you can have them too? Ha!" Sonic taunted. "You already have chaos powers, Shadow. Make do with what you have."

"That's it! Chaos spear!" Shadow yelled and swiped his arm through the air. Sonic jumped to the side to avoid the spear that had to potential to cut his small body in half. When the blue hedgehog landed, he sent his own chaos spear without having to give the verbal command. The idle chaos spear vanished in thin air before it could hit the windows behind Shadow.

"Your aim is pathetic!" Shadow said as he watched the anti-chaos energy bounce off to the side and sizzled out.

"Yeah, well at least I don't have to say 'Chaos spear' to summon one. My attacks are quicker than yours!" the blue hedgehog boasted. "All I need is practice, you'll always need to say your attacks. Some ultimate life form you are- UGH!"

Shadow left Sonic's sight, and the blue one felt something impact his back.

"I don't always have to say my powers to use them, and never question my title as Ultimate!" Sonic heard Shadow say from behind him as he stumbled forward. The blue one felt as though all his breath had been knocked out of his body. "I still have my advantages over you, can you perform a discreet chaos control?" Sonic looked at Shadow painfully from the floor, trying his hardest to breathe.

"No… but I can heal myself-" Sonic struggled to say, he was enveloped in a light of green and purple and the pain decreased to almost nothing. The blue one got up and faced his rival once again with another smirk. Shadow was speechless, but the same stoic look covered his face. Sonic could tell that Shadow was shocked at this ability, he was just hiding it. "Are you able to perform a discreet heal technique?" he mimicked.

Shadow's eyes widened. "That wasn't even discreet- never mind. No more games, I want answers from you."

"If you really want to know how I got this I'll tell you," Sonic said seriously. "But promise me you won't go getting this yourself, it's dangerous."

"Hmph, dangerous to my enemies," Shadow said arrogantly. Sonic knew Shadow wouldn't listen if he tried to tell him that the powers nearly killed him.

"I got it from Eggman," Sonic said simply. "But I killed him."

Shadow's jaw dropped. "Y-you selfish bastard! Taking all of the power for yourself!" the dark one growled viciously. "Where did Eggman find those powers?"

"I have no idea! He just shot me with this anti-chaos laser and I defeated him with the powers I got from it!"

"So, if I go to his base now, I can get some of those powers for myself?" Shadow asked.

"No, the base self-destructed. There's nothing left," Sonic said and folded his arms stubbornly. "You're not getting these powers."

"You lie. Where is the base?"

"To the east, you can go there but all you'll only find the remains," Sonic said seriously and watched Shadow as he walked off to the east direction.

"So you say, Faker. I'm going to get those powers. I will not let you have the advantage over me."

The hedgehog was gone from sight, Sonic was left alone with Tails.

"Sonic… what if he manages to get those powers?" Tails asked worriedly as he flew down to the ground and stood by his friend.

"He won't, there's nothing left of the base, or Eggman. It's gone. Whatever's left will be scorched, useless," Sonic said firmly. "He's wasting his time."

"Why didn't you tell him that it nearly killed you. Maybe that would have gotten him off your back."

Sonic gave a small chuckle. "Yeah right, Shadow only hears what he wants to in situations like this. He didn't believe me about the base, so why would he believe about that?"

"You have a point," Tails said unsurely. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks to my healing ability," Sonic said smugly and looked at himself, there wasn't even a scratch on his body, he felt strong and healthy. "Three fights in one day and I feel fit enough for another!"

Suddenly, his green eyes widened and his pupils shrunk. He fell to the floor just as he did at Eggman's base. The agonised hedgehog dropped to his knees and became paralysed with pain.

"Sonic! What's wrong?" Tails exclaimed and bent down to look at his immobilised friend.

Sonic turned to Tails with true fear in his eyes. "I think I'm going to die."


	5. Chapter 5

"Sonic, what are you on about?" Tails cried out.

"This hurts exactly like it did when Eggman shot me… when I nearly died," Sonic panicked. His teeth were clenched in pain and his eyes wide with worry. "Maybe it _was_ meant to kill me… and now it's caught up."

"No. Sonic! If it didn't kill you before then it won't kill you now, surely!" Tails begged. "I'm getting you home." the fox ran off and left Sonic alone to take the pain.

"T-tails? Where are you going? T-to get the… Tornado?" Sonic asked weakly, but Tails didn't answer. Instead, he flew off as fast as he could. The blue hedgehog felt his heart stop and his lungs constrict, his muscles burnt with pain, the hero hadn't felt anything like it before. The suffering creature felt as though he could vomit his insides out, he gagged and faced the floor, waiting for it to flow out, however nothing escaped his mouth. There was nothing in his stomach _to_ throw up, he hadn't eaten breakfast.

His blue ears pricked up when he heard the sound of a plane engine get nearer. The tornado landed a few meters away from the suffering hedgehog. Tails got out to hear Sonic cry out in pain. "H-help me, Tails," Sonic whimpered while shivering. The fox put his arms underneath his friend and lifted him up.

Having carried the hero through adventures whiling flying, taking his limp body a few meters was no problem, even though Sonic was heavier than the fox. "Sonic, can you stand?" Tails asked him, but Sonic wasn't listening. "There's only one seat in here, so you're going to have to ride on the wing."

"C-can't," Sonic rasped. "I'm… s-sorry."

"We need to squeeze into the cockpit then," Tails said worriedly. "It may be a bit dangerous but it's the only way to get you home."

"Hmmm…" Sonic groaned, his eyes were closing. Tails put Sonic inside the cockpit and sat by him, the two of them shared a seat.

"I knew I should have added a second seat," the fox grumbled as he started the engine.

"Tails?" Sonic breathed.

"Yes, Sonic?"

"Thank you, for being a good friend… you made my life the way it is. Without you I would have been nothing."

"I know…" Tails said. "You've changed my life too."

"Yeah…" Sonic said sleepily. "Thanks…"

When Sonic came to his senses again, he couldn't remember getting home, nor getting on Tails' testing table. He didn't remember hearing Knuckles arrive either. I figured out that all of these things must have happened while he was unconscious.

"What's going on?" Sonic rasped and look up at his two friends who were standing right by him, either side of the table.

"Sonic, this energy is dangerous," Knuckles said sternly.

"Tails… did you tell Knuckles about my cool powers? Why did you have to ruin the fun?" Sonic complained weakly while laying flat on his back.

"Sonic, this isn't the time for games, this is serious," Knuckles scolded.

"Knuckles, I've given him pain relief, he might not even know what he's saying," Tails explained.

"Yeah, he doesn't feel any pain however the damage is still being done. For all we know his insides could be eroding away and we'll never know," Knuckles warned.

Sonic gasped and grabbed Tails' hand in fear and shock. The thought of his insides melting away made his head spin with nausea and panic.

"What's happening to me?" Sonic looked at Knuckles pleadingly.

"Your body wasn't meant to hold negative chaos power. It's like a poison to you. Your body was able to harness it for a while but it looks as if Eggman's original goal is getting accomplished," Knuckles explained. "You've used your new powers too much and the energy's multiplied inside of you, like a parasite."

Sonic felt sick; all that fun he had while practicing outside, and every spear he shot for fun, was slowly killing him as he enjoyed it. Eggman's plan was working and he wouldn't have those cool advantages with his new powers after all.

"Is there a way to cure it?" the hedgehog rasped.

"Yes, you should be able to neutralise it with positive chaos energy from the chaos emeralds," Knuckles said. Sonic sighed. "I know, it means you're going to have to go on another search for them."

The blue hedgehog sat up and smiled; it was unlike Sonic to turn down an adventure.

"How can he, in this state?" Tails asked. "Perhaps we should go and let Sonic rest." Sonic's smile dropped.

"Aww! I can go myself. Come on, I feel a lot better!" Sonic exclaimed like a child wanting to go to the park.

"Sonic, can you just be serious for one minute?" the red one snapped. "You can't go yourself, even if you do feel better. The more you use those powers the more you risk death."

"I won't use them!" Sonic yelled suddenly. Knuckles frowned.

"Tails told me how much you were enjoying those powers, how do we know you won't use them?" Knuckles poked. Sonic sighed.

"Well, I don't want to die any time soon, so you can be assured that I won't use them," Sonic said while rolling his eyes. Tails smiled in relief. "Unless necessary."

"Sonic!" the two of them exclaimed. Sonic folded his arms looking fed up. The three of them were speechless. Sonic sat up and looked at his knees in shame.

"I'm the fastest one here… I can get all of the emeralds in time, but if your two go it might be too late by the time you get back," Sonic said solemnly.

"Let's go to the master emerald, and see what Tikal advises," Knuckles suggested. "Can you get up?"

Sonic nodded his head and attempted to stand. He swung his body around so that his legs hung off the side of the table, then slid off and landed on his feet. Being on his feet, Sonic began to feel dizzy and light headed as if his centre of gravity had been altered. Tails held out his hands to stop Sonic from collapsing. The blue hedgehog lent back against the table to stop himself from stumbling to the ground. He waited for the vertigo to leave him, then walked forward.

"Let's go," Sonic said with determination. The three of them left Tail's workshop to go to Angel Island.


	6. Chapter 6

Sonic felt as though he had pins and needles all over. The drugs he was given were definitely doing their job. Tails climbed into the pilot seat, and started the engine of the Tornado. Sonic was able to ride on the wing, so the lack of seats wasn't a problem. Sonic rode on the left wing and Knuckles on the right, both working hard to keep their balance. It was only a short fly which took a mere thirty seconds to get the trio up to the floating island near by. Any other day they would have taken a ten minute walk up the mountain and across the bridge, but there was no time for a stroll today.

When the plane landed, Sonic stumbled off the wing and fell to the floor face first; his hands saved his face from injury. Tails ran over to him while Knuckles stood at a distance looking grim. "Sonic, are you hurting again?" Tails asked sounding panicked. Sonic shook his head.

"J-just lost my balance as I was getting off, I'm fine," Sonic brushed himself off as Tails helped him up. The hedgehog looked to his right to see the Master Emerald shrine about fifty yards away. This made him feel uneasy, as if he was about to stand before a judge. What if he was told that this couldn't be cured, and he would die? After all he'd fought for and everything he'd survived this couldn't be the end.

Knuckles walked forward, leading Sonic and Tails to the shrine. Sonic looked at Tails for support, the two brothers walked side by side behind the echidna until they stood before the master emerald. Knuckles stood right by it and summoned Tikal with a chant. Sonic grew closer to Tails; he hadn't felt this nervous in a long time, so the hero found it hard to cope. There was a blinding flash and Tikal appeared beside the large gem.

"I sense that something isn't right…" she said sounding troubled then looked to Sonic.

"H-hey there…" Sonic tried to be his causal self, but found it hard to at such a severe time.

"Tikal, he's been infected with the negative chaos energy," Knuckles explained. Sonic cringed at the word 'infected', it made the situation seem more grave. Tikal frowned at what she'd been told, as if there was no hope. Sonic's eyes widened and he looked at her with worry.

"How long has his body been exposed to the negative chaos?" she asked.

"About five hours," Tails answered.

"Then you still have a chance to neutralise it. You need to use the positive energy from the seven chaos emeralds to do so, then bring them back here."

"As I thought. How long does Sonic have left to collect the emeralds?" Knuckles asked. "A week?"

"Hmm…" Tikal pondered and walked over to Sonic, he put her hand on his chest and closed her eyes. She stepped away in shock immediately. "You've been using the power excessively, haven't you?" Sonic nodded. "You mustn't use it again! Any more and you'll body will be devoured by it. At this rate, you'll only have about two days left."

Sonic began to shake, even at his speed, if he didn't know where the emerald were, that wouldn't be enough time to collect all of them.

"We'll have to split up. Me and Tails will search for the emeralds in the Tornado and Sonic will search for them on foot," Knuckles said. "We're trusting him not to use the powers out of our observation."

Tikal nodded. "I wish I could help, but I must stay here with Chaos. I hope you succeed in your quest, Sonic. After all you've done for this world, you don't deserve to die like this," she said sincerely. "You need to leave now for you to have any hope of getting the emeralds in time. I'll see you again in two days… or not at all."

With those words said, she was absorbed back into the master emerald. Tikal's last words hit Sonic right in the chest; she was right. He either came back with the emeralds in two days, or he would die and she wouldn't see him again. Tails looked at his big brother worriedly; Sonic was always fearless, but today he looked terrified. The fox wrapped his arms around the hedgehog for a brotherly hug; the two of them stayed in the tight lock for a full minute.

"We need to start looking for those emeralds now. Sonic, are you able to run?" Knuckles asked seriously. Sonic pulled away and turned to Knuckles looking slightly flustered.

"Yeah, sure. But I need to do something first," he said seriously. Knuckles was about to question, but heard a loud rumble from the hedgehog's stomach. "I'm going to have… what could possibly be… my last meal."

"You do that Sonic, but Tails and I are going to get a head start," Knuckles said and they walked back to the Tornado. Sonic followed for a last goodbye.

"Bye Tails… Knuckles. I'll see you back here in a day or two," Sonic said and swallowed, unable to bring himself to say the 'not at all' part Tikal had mentioned. The engine started up.

"No procrastinating." If he was able to, Knuckles would have pointed a finger.

"We'll keep in contact with this," Tails said and used a soft underarm throw to pass a small device to Sonic. It was a strap on wrist communicator. The hedgehog strapped it on and held it up to his ear. "Testing, do you read me?" Sonic heard Tail's voice from the fox himself and the device.

"Yup… I can hear ya'." Sonic replied while holding down a small button on the side.

"They work, and were built for long ranges so there shouldn't be any problems with it," Tails said. "Oh, it's also shatter proof, water proof and heat proof. I know the difficulties you get yourself into Sonic…"

Sonic smirked mischievously. "But still be careful."

"I will," Sonic nodded at his brother's command. "We should split up now."

"Sure… bye Sonic…" the fox said solemnly and closed the door. Knuckles gave a wave goodbye as the plane lifted off.

Sonic was alone again. He sped off over the bridge and down the mountain, he didn't need to take a slow stroll as he had no slow friends to hold him back. His first destination? Station Square for a much needed chilidog.


	7. Chapter 7

All he wanted was a chilidog, one worthy of satisfying a hungry, dying hedgehog. Nothing cheap and bland, something enjoyable and delicious. It wouldn't take long because he knew exactly where to go. After that he would run off and find those chaos emeralds, the plan seemed flawless. With plenty of hours left in the day, he would probably find his first emerald by sunset.

The hungry hedgehog ran to the designated restaurant and ordered a two chilidogs to go. His stomach rumbled as he waited for them to be cooked and served over the counter.

"Hmm… perhaps this is going to take longer than I thought," Sonic mumbled to himself.

Within five minutes it was served, so the ravenous hero could leave. This was something he'd anticipated for a long time, and his possible death was a perfect excuse to pig out and indulge himself in the expensive food. Once he stepped outside, he stopped on the sidewalk and took a bite. The meat was warm and the bread was soft. The sauce made it moist and easy to bite into. The surrounding area was quiet, no one was around to bother him. He thought to himself, if were to die today, he would die happy. To go down from such a high now would break his heart… too bad there _was _someone there to ruin the moment.

"OH! SONIC!" a young squeal sounded from behind.

The blue hedgehog's ears dropped to the sides of his head and his eyes widened. Then the impact came. Sonic was pushed to the floor, his food splattering across the ground, now inedible. He was unable to get up because of the pink hedgehog on top of him.

"Sonic! I'm so glad I found you!" Amy yelled, wrapping her arms around her crush. "And it's actually you this time!"

"GEDDOFF!" Sonic yelled, losing his temper. Amy got up as quickly as she could. Sonic picked himself up off the floor and looked at the damage. The chilidogs he'd looked forward to devouring were sprawled out across the floor. The riled hedgehog turned around to face Amy. "Of all of the days, Amy!"

"S-sonic…" Amy said, her voice trembling as if she was about to cry. "Why are you so-"

"Have to go and buy another chilidog now thanks to you. What's more, you probably expect me to buy you one too! Sonic exclaimed angrily.

"Well of course, I am your gir-"

"Don't say it!" Sonic snarled, pointing his finger at her muzzle. Amy was silent, her eyes widened in fear. "All I wanted was to eat my meal in peace… is that really too much to ask? Especially considering what's happened to me today!" Sonic asked the universe.

"W-what… happened to you today?" Amy asked worriedly. In his mind, Sonic debated as to whether he should tell Amy what really happened. If he told her he would die soon, she could have tried to spend every last minute with him. If he didn't, she would keep asking, or perhaps waste even more of his time since she wouldn't know that he was in a rush.

"Nothing much. But I'm in a hurry, and now I have to waste even more time ordering more chilidogs," Sonic answered irritably and walked past her towards the restaurant.

Amy followed him warily, noticing him stop before he could walk through the door.

Sonic held his hand up to his chest in pain, feeling the sharp agony run through this body. The distressed hedgehog tried his hardest to hide his pain from Amy, since he didn't want her to know what was happening to him. But it was impossible to act okay when he was feeling pain as strong as this. He fell against the door frame, and grunted in pain.

"Sonic! What's wrong!?" Amy exclaimed and ran over to him.

"N-nothing… j-just…" Sonic failed to finish his sentence without growling in pain. "… heartburn or something…" the hedgehog sighed and collapsed to the floor, sliding against the doorframe into a sitting position.

Amy grabbed Sonic's arms in a panic. "Please Sonic! Tell me what's wrong with you!"

"Nothing," Sonic said, firmly this time. "Just leave me alone… for once… please."

"But you need help. It's my responsibility to help you, I'm your g-"

"Don't you dare say it!" Sonic yelled. Amy stepped back in shock and fear. "Amy, we are _not _going out! I don't like you that way!"

"Sonic… why?" Amy said, getting tears in her eyes. Usually, when Amy resulted to tears, Sonic would feel bad and make up with it by going along with it, but not today.

"Because you're just… an annoying fan girl to me. Nothing more," Sonic said through his deep breaths. The pain began to fade away and the hedgehog became relaxed again.

Sonic slowly got himself up off the floor while Amy stood and watched him silently. She didn't stop him when he went inside to get two more chilidogs.

Looking as miserable as Shadow, the blue hedgehog ordered his meal again and waited. He hoped to Chaos that Amy wouldn't be outside when he left, he didn't have the strength to deal with her anymore. If he didn't get to the emeralds in time, it would be her own fault that she'd lost her 'Sonikku'.

Sonic left the second his request was given to him, only to stop in his tracks at the door when he saw Amy waiting, with a look on her face that said 'I deserve pity.' Sonic tried to ignore and walked past, down the street, hoping he could at recover a slither of that bliss he'd felt before. He felt like a fool for believing it would be so easy.

"Sonic… please." he heard Amy whimper. The hedgehog just hardened his tone and sped up to leave her behind. He didn't have the time to deal with her, his life was on the line. But speeding up came to no avail, as she chased after him. Hearing her desperate footsteps, Sonic swung around to face her.

"Leave me alone! I don't have time for this!" the hero yelled.

"Why? What would be so important that you'd have to treat me like this?" Amy screamed.

"I'm DYING!" Sonic yelled. There was silence, and a feeling of regret. Sonic looked to the floor in shame, he'd done the very thing he didn't want to do. Before Amy could say anything about spending his last moments together, Sonic spoke. "Now, there's a chance I could survive, but I don't have much time. If I don't get those emeralds in time, I'm dead. And thanks to you, I have less time."

"Y-you should have said…" Amy said, sobbing. "L-let me help you get the emeralds…"

"No. Tails and Knuckles are helping, I don't need yours. I'll see you on Angel Island in two days, or never again," Sonic said and turned to leave. Quick on his feet, he made a power walk around the corner away from his stalker. Now that he was out of site, he leaned against the wall and took a bite out of his chilidog, like a stressed smoker taking a puff of a cigarette.

"Sonic…are you on the go yet?" Tails' voice sounded from his wrist communicator. Sonic swallowed quickly and answered, sounding flustered.

"Y-yeah, sure… I'm way out of Station Square- hic."

"Soonniiicc," Tails said irritably.

"No Tails, I ran into Amy and I still haven't eaten, I'll move at full speed as soon as I finish, I promise," Sonic sighed, then hiccupped again, swallowing his food all of a sudden was a bad idea.

"Sonic, finish your food and get out of there! We're putting in our full effort to save your life and you're just lounging about and stuffing your face!" Knuckles yelled from the other side.

"Please Sonic…" Tails said, sounding upset. Sonic felt ashamed.

"Okay… I'm sorry, I'll finish up and go," Sonic said.

Thanks to Amy, there was no chance of slowly enjoying his food, the hedgehog had to eat it up quickly and rush off. He was behind schedule and had to make up for lost time.

Perhaps the lost time was too much to recover…


	8. Chapter 8

Sonic felt a lot better when he was on the move, but he didn't know where to go first. The clueless hedgehog put his wrist up to his mouth again and contacted his friend.

"Tails, buddy. Do you have any idea where an emerald might be?" Sonic asked.

"Try Emerald Hill. Knuckles and I haven't checked there yet, good luck."

That was all that was said. There was no time for petty conversation. Sonic made a few calculations in his mind of his whereabouts then took a strong right and sped down the empty fields and valleys towards his first destination. Now was a bittersweet time to re-visit a place of the past.

Thankfully, Westside Island wasn't too far out from the mainland, so a quick boat trip took Sonic across the water. Tails was right, he could sense the emerald, so one was definitely on the island. Sensing a strong source of Chaos energy made him feel the need to use his powers, something that used a lot of might to overcome.

Right now, Sonic yearned for the use of his new powers; it would make this task a lot easier and bring him to the emerald quicker, giving him less chance of running out of time. It was tempting as he ran through the island's greenery, admiring the clean blue waterfalls and clear blue sky.

Running through a place he hadn't visited in a long time brought back many memories. Memories of his early friendship with Tails, and thoughts that it would all end because of the cursed negative chaos infection inside of him. He remembered all of the robots he'd destroyed, animals he'd freed, the rings he'd collected, and the great times he had with his old friend. Such a beautiful and nostalgic area.

This feeling of uneasy nostalgia ended when something caught the blue one's eye. He stopped and turned his head to look to the right, and saw it. An old rusting robot, something he must have missed years ago. It looked nothing like the machines Eggman build today; it was old and simple. A Badnick that was never defeated, nor recalled by Eggman. Sonic didn't feel sad for the robot, but worried for the animal inside. Was the robot dead because the animal had escaped, or had it simply rusted so much it couldn't move, trapping the animal inside of it forever?

Sonic walked over to it slowly, tapping it with the tip of his shoe. It didn't move. A simple homing attack destroyed it, at least, what was left of it. The hedgehog sighed when no animal was seen. He had no idea whether it would have been preserved and alive, or dead.

Feeling uneasy, the hedgehog continued through the zone in order to find the emerald that must have been somewhere on the island.

After ten minutes of searching the island, Sonic saw nothing, and felt… nothing. He no longer sensed the presence of Chaos energy. Feeling confused, he made his way back to the boat.

"This… negative chaos energy must be messing with my senses… I could have sworn there was something on the island…" Sonic mumbled to himself and climbed back into the boat for the quick thirty second ride to the mainland.

Then he saw _him_. Sonic felt anger build up inside of his body and heart, it was so strong he could have cried.

"EGGMAN!"

The scientist, who was in his Eggmobile, turned his flying machine around to face Sonic. He was holding an emerald, the very one that was once at Emerald Hill.

"You're still alive?" Sonic said through gritted teeth.

"I was going to ask you the same question, hedgehog," Eggman sneered. The two of them entered a starting contest for a few seconds.

"Am I going to have to defeat you again to get the emerald, or are you just going to make it easier for yourself and give it to me?" Sonic threatened.

"Go ahead, Sonic. Fight me without using those new powers of yours, I dare you to try it."

Sonic's eyes widened, Eggman must have known about his situation to make a remark about that. Noticing Sonic's surprised expression, Eggman spoke again.

"Yes, I know. I am the one who infected you with the energy after all. It hasn't killed you yet, but it undoubtedly will. All I have to do is keep the emeralds from you to succeed in my original plan."

The hedgehog felt the anger build up in him even more.

"RRR! Give it to me _**now**_!" Sonic yelled and flashed purple for a second. The blue one's burst of rage stopped when he noticed he'd activated his powers. This made him feel very insecure. He was close to death enough as it was, and just used up a slither of the energy. Not much, but it could have been enough to kill him.

Eggman had a wide and sinister smile on his face, one that made Sonic feel sick with contempt. The hero's suffering was enjoyed by his enemy.

"What are you going to do then, Sonic? Risk your life, or swallow your pride and run?" Eggman asked. The hedgehog was tempted to keep up his appearance and fight Eggman, like a true hero but this couldn't happen, not if he wanted to survive. The sun was going down, which meant the first day of rest of his life was coming to and end.

The blue hedgehog narrowed his eyes at Eggman then ran. Sonic would have to obtain the emerald from Eggman another time. Perhaps the hero could get Knuckles to beat it out of him, but for now Sonic had to walk away from a fight. Something he found hard to do when Eggman was concerned.

Running at one of his top speeds, the land around him went from green to beige, he'd reached a desert like area, Sand Ruins.

With the sun declining behind the horizon, and darkness falling over; Sonic could only do one thing, rest. He found a small tree near a minute water source and began to slumber. He would find the emeralds tomorrow. He was fast, so surely he would find them in time.


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey there big blue, how's it going?"

Sonic shook his head and opened his eyes at the sound of a mature, feminine voice.

"Rouge?" Sonic guessed groggily as his sight stopped blurring. When his view became clear his thoughts were confirmed; it was, in fact, Rouge the Bat.

"What are you doing all of the way out here?" She asked casually while Sonic got up from the floor.

"I'm looking for the Chaos Emeralds," Sonic said with confidence.

"What a coincidence, so am I," she said with a smile.

"What for? Are you treasure hunting again?" Sonic asked. Rouge nodded. "Well you can't have them. I need the chaos emeralds for a more important reason!"

"Why would you want the emeralds? You're already powerful. Shadow told me about those new powers you have," she said in a teasing voice. Sonic frowned at this.

"Are you working with him?"

"I might be… I might not be," Rouge taunted. Sonic had a strong feeling that she was working with Shadow and that he was getting them to obtain the powers Sonic had.

"Why does Shadow want those emeralds?" Sonic said seriously.

"I'm sworn not to tell," she smirked. "How about we work together to find the emeralds?"

"What, just you can run off with the emerald in the end? No way!" Sonic exclaimed. "Now if you have any sense of decency you'll let me have the emeralds, your reason can't possibly be more important than mine!"

"Hmm, how about you tell me your motive, I'll tell you mine and we can judge?" Rouge said.

"No, you can't know," Sonic grumbled, getting more and more impatient.

"Well neither can you then!" Rouge laughed.

"You wouldn't have told me, anyway, you were sworn to secrecy," Sonic complained. "Why am I even listening to you, you always lie." The hedgehog walked past her feeling his frustration get the better of him.

"Trying to find the emerald before I do?" Rouge asked. Sonic didn't answer, he just kept on walking. Now that he'd left the shade of the tree, he felt the heat fall down on him.

The hedgehog didn't hear any more from Rouge, but saw her figure fly into the distance.

"She's a treasure hunter, so she's going to have an advantage over me," Sonic said to himself. "I'll have to use her advantage to my advantage." he smirked and ran after her, but kept his distance so he wouldn't get caught.

The hedgehog tensed up when he felt a light breeze, one not made by his own body creating air friction. Wind in the desert could only mean one thing. The hedgehog stopped to confirm that it wasn't himself creating the breeze, and even at a standstill he felt it, and it was getting stronger.

"Oh no, I have to find shelter!" he exclaimed and ran at top speed to see if there were any structures he could hide behind. He looked forward to see that Rouge was still gliding, using the wind to her advantage to fly higher and faster, something Sonic couldn't do.

Sonic failed to spot Rouge as the sand in the air thickened; it came from behind but it still hurt. With all of the grains in the air, Sonic found it hard to breathe. He closed his eyes tight and held his breath, deciding to wait it out, but the storm went on longer than he could wait. He grunted in pain and discomfort, then the inevitable happened, he got covered in sand.

Rouge was having a blast, getting propelled forward. When the wind died down she landed on the floor and looked behind her.

"I've lost him," she said triumphantly. "Huh?"

Rouge squinted her eyes to see a large ball of purple, not so far away. She ran towards it. Sonic was using a purple shield, which became uncovered as a pile of sand slid off of it. Seeing that the wind had stopped, the hedgehog deactivated his anti-chaos shield, looking traumatised.

"No…" Sonic groaned to himself and collapsed to the floor, his hands and knees sunk into the sand. The distressed hedgehog shut his eyes tightly and grit his teeth in pain.

"Sonic, what's wrong?" Rouge asked. Sonic looked up with dampened eyes.

"H-hurts…" he rasped weakly, hardly able say that one word.

"What hurts?" the bat sounded concerned. Sonic took in a deep and shaky breath.

"Everything…" he shivered. "It's that… negative chaos… it's deadly."

Rouge's mouth gaped open, she covered it in shock.

"Shadow wants the emeralds to gain these powers, doesn't he?" Sonic growled through the pain. Rouge nodded slightly. "He can't, it'll kill him, slowly and painfully, as it's doing to me…"

The both of them were silent as Sonic waited for the pain to die down. When he managed to get up he spoke again.

"That's why I need the emeralds, to neutralise the negative energy, and cure me… on Angel Island," Sonic explained weakly. "And I can't use those powers or it'll kill me quicker… and I just did, but it was only a reflex to stop me from suffocating."

Rouge gave a deep sigh. "Fine, you can have the emerald in this area… but if I happen to come across another in this area then you'll have to beg me for it," Rouge said in defeat, but finished on a harsh note. She then glided into the distance.

Shadow waited on the outskirts on the desert for Rouge. He heard his ally call his name and turned his head. Rouge returned to him looking concerned.

"Shadow, you can't get those powers, they're dangerous!" Rouge exclaimed when she reached him.

"Of course they are, to the enemy of the person using it," Shadow scoffed.

"No Shadow, it's dangerous to the person using it as well. Sonic's dying because of the negative chaos energy!" she cried out.

"Hah, the faker is faking! He wants to be the only one with those powers. I assume you let him have the emerald because of his lies!" Shadow poked fun.

"It's not a lie, he was in pain, Shadow. You can't get those powers, and you have to let him have the emeralds so he can cure it."

Shadow frowned at his ally and folded his arms.

"Just because it's killing Sonic; it doesn't mean it'll kill me. I'm the ultimate life form, and he's just a Faker," Shadow remained true to his word.

"Shadow… you're already strong enough without the powers, and Sonic's going to give them up… you don't need to pursue more power," Rouge said and put her hand on Shadow's shoulder.

"We're still getting those emeralds, I want to put that Faker to the test…" Shadow said maliciously.

"Let's go, if we happen to find any emeralds, we'll take it to Angel Island, it's where Sonic said he'd perform the cure, let's go," Rouge said, the both of them turned to leave.

"Hmph, you wouldn't believe me when I told you I was mistaken for Sonic by that pink hedgehog again…" Shadow began to complain as they walked.


	10. Chapter 10

"So, she let you have the emerald, just like that?" Tails' voice sounded on the communicator.

"Yep, I found it soon after. The red emerald is mine, but Eggman has the blue one, and there's no doubt Rouge and Shadow will find one of their own. Do you have any emeralds?"

"No, not yet, but we think that there's one close by…" Tails answered.

Sonic began to feel nervous. Finding the emeralds in time would be harder than he thought, and it was getting tougher to stop himself from using his negative chaos powers. The blue hedgehog didn't want to tell Tails he'd resulting to using his powers in the desert; he wanted to avoid getting another lecture and panicking his friends. A few moments of silence passed as Sonic thought to himself.

"We've got it!" Tails exclaimed, snapping the hedgehog out of his trance. Sonic stopped on the spot.

"Good job, Tails! That's two now. I'm on my way to Water Palace. Whenever I face its direction my emerald gets brighter, so there must be another one there!" Sonic announced.

"Okay, but be careful of Eggman's traps, there might be some left over since our last adventure there," the fox warned. "And don't be tempted to use the chaos shield when you get in the water."

"I won't, I promise," Sonic said, he couldn't help but think that he might break that promise.

Their contact ended, and the hedgehog sped ahead to Water Palace, another area he hadn't been in for a long time. The thought of having to run in water again made him uneasy, and having to resist the urge to use his powers worried him even more. The possession of more Chaos energy made it even harder to hold back the need.

The hedgehog entered the zone at top speed, sensing the Chaos Emerald's energy stronger, which meant he was closer.

"I was right; there must be one here. Now I just need to grab it and get out of there before someone else takes it!" he said with determination and pushed on ahead. It was all going well. H leant forward, streamlining his body for extra ease of speed, but this all changed when he hit the water.

_Don't do it, Sonic… don't use the shield. You can hold your breath, you can make it. _he thought to himself.

After being stuck in a desert for so many hours, he thought he would enjoy being in water or at least feel a lack of fear, but he was wrong. His nature of hating and fearing water would not leave him, no matter what. Perhaps he should have gone to see that therapist like Tails had once suggested. There was nothing wrong with fear, it just give him a disadvantage at times like this.

The uneasy hedgehog saw the green mixed with purple flash up around him, causing him to stop on the spot; his powers were activating against his will. This was the sign that Sonic needed air; it was time to get out of the water, or at least get some breath from a bubble or two. His muscles began to lock up, and his lungs got desperate for air; it was time to get out. The hedgehog moved on, resisting the urge to use the powers to get some air.

The desperate hero found a slope that brought him upwards and out of the water. He shook himself off and took a few deep breaths.

"Th-that was a close call," he coughed, then looked ahead to see more water. "Oh no… I think the emerald is in there… I have to go back in."

Sonic took a deep breath and propelled himself forward, diving back into the water.

There it is! He thought, feeling alert. He could see the emerald, it was so close. All he had to do was grab it and leave again. His hand grasped the jewel, it was certain, he obtained his second emerald. Along with Tail's emerald, that made three. They were about half way there. It was all going well, until Sonic felt his foot press down on a pressure plate.

SLAM!

A cage fell down on the hedgehog at lighting speed, trapping him on the spot, with no air. Sonic felt as if his heart stopped at the shock; there was no way he could get out of this trap easily. With sight blurred by the water and his oxygen levels depleting, it was nearly impossible to work out how to escape. In a rush, he felt around for a latch or a lock he could pick.

It came to a life determining decision; run out of oxygen and certainly die, or use his powers to gain oxygen, escape, and possibly die. It was a no brainer.

_I knew I'd have to break my promise! _Sonic thought in frustration, then let his powers start up naturally. The purple spherical shield appeared around him and faded into a green colour as it was bombarded with water from all around. Sonic took in a deep breath, a much needed one. He could see again, the world around him was a tint of green, but it was better than being blurry. The energy that he expelled to create the shield destroyed the bars of the small cage. It was too little to contain the ball like guard. This was Sonic's chance to get out of there!

He left the water and deactivated his powers as soon as the tip of his ears hit the surface. H then collapsed onto the smooth, marble like ground, the water darkening and dampening the path around him. When he caught some of his breath back, he held his hand up to his wrist, feeling thankful that Tails made the device water proof.

"T-tails… I have it… my second emerald," Sonic said, sounding exhausted. It took a lot to tire out the blue hedgehog, but when water, one of his greatest fears was involved, it wasn't so challenging to exhaust him.

"That's great!" Tails exclaimed. "But, you don't sound very well, what's happened?"

"I… hate… water…" Sonic grumbled. That's all Tails needed to hear to understand the situation.

"And you kept yourself from using your powers? That's amazing!" Tails said, assuming Sonic had kept to his word. There was a slight pause before Sonic said,

"Yeah…" while expelling a deep breath of air. Tails mistook the pause for Sonic's need to catch his breath, but it was really because Sonic was deciding whether to lie or not, and he lied.

"Well done Sonic. We should be in possession of our second emerald within twenty minutes. I'll update you when we have it," he said. Sonic nodded, forgetting his friends couldn't see him. "I'll speak you then."

"Oh… yeah, sure… bye Tails," Sonic said, sounding flustered. The conversation ended.

Shamefully, the hedgehog turned to leave by finding the driest route he could take out of the city.

* * *

**I'm very busy with school work, so I tend to forget about this story. If I don't update this for a long time, and you want to see a new chapter, just PM me to remind me to update.**


	11. Chapter 11

"Ung… what an inconvenient place to get pain like this…" Sonic groaned and collapsed onto the ground that was cushioned by snow. Its freezing cold temperatures caused a burning sensation on his bare skin. The next emerald was near by, there was just the dilemma of actually getting to it. He was in Ice Cap zone, having gone from one extreme to the other, from desert areas to arctic regions. It was always bound to happen to a hyper-fast hedgehog that could travel at several hundred miles per hour. The hedgehog had the ability to experience several climates in one day.

The use of his powers on Water Palace had caught up with him a little later than it had in the desert. Sonic thought he'd avoided the agony since he felt fine for a full ten minutes, but it hit him all of a sudden, in nearly every place in his body. The freezing cold was making it hard to cope; the freezing cold air hurt his lungs as he breathed in heavily, and made his skin feel white hot. All he could do was wait for the pain to end and warm up again by running or rubbing his hands together, but the pain didn't end soon enough.

"Sonic, we have another emerald, that makes four now," Tails alerted Sonic. The hedgehog struggled to bring his wrist to his mouth. There was a full thirty seconds of silence. "Sonic?"

"T-tails…" Sonic rasped. "D-don't… w-worry about me…"

"Sonic, are you shivering? Where are you?" Tails asked, worriedly.

"Ice cap zone… but like I said, I'll be fine… just need to, r-rest… UGH!" Sonic couldn't help but cry out in pain at the end of that sentence.

"Sonic, what's going on?" Tails exclaimed.

"It hurts again, Tails… I'm paralyzed," Sonic said sounding as if he could cry, Tails could hear that he was in agony. "I'm… in the snow, f-f-f-freezing my tail off…"

"We're close by that area! We'll come and help you!"

"NO! I'll be fine, j-just… have to wait for the pain to stop… and I can carry on as usual," Sonic groaned.

"How do you know that it's going to just stop like that?" Tails asked, sounding anxious. Sonic didn't answer. "Sonic!"

"It's… happened before," Sonic admitted with a struggle. With a sigh, his voice sounding a little relaxed. "The pain… it's going away… I can get up now."

"Get yourself somewhere warm as soon as possible!" the fox ordered.

"No, Tails, I'm fine-"

"You're not fine, Sonic! Stop acting as through you're invincible!" Knuckles' vicious voice came through the speaker. "Do you want to die?"

"N-nooo…" Sonic said through his shivers.

"You can go back to the ice caps when you're warmed up again! We're on our way!" Knuckles said aggressively. Sonic's ears drooped in dread, he didn't want his friends to see him in such a state, or find out he'd used his powers and that he'd been lying.

"O-ok-k-k-aaaay…" Sonic said, like a child that had been told off. The conversation ended.

The hedgehog slowly made his way to somewhere warmer, getting away from the snow and blisteringly cold wind. It would have all been fine if he hadn't fallen into the snow.

The freezing hedgehog found a cave within an ice cap which sheltered him from the wind and snow. He called out when he heard a plane flying overhead. It landed nearby and the blue one ran over to it.

"Tails! Thank goodness, let me in, is there heating in there?" Sonic said quickly and jumped through the door as soon as the door opened, not caring that he would land on top of Tails.

"Sonic! You're freezing, it's feels like there's an ice block on top of me!" Tails exclaimed.

"Mmmm… body warmth…" Sonic sighed.

"I guess I'll go and find the emerald then," Knuckles sighed and jumped off of the plane wing.

"That'll be the fifth one…" Sonic said weakly. "Eggman has the sixth one for sure…"

"And someone else has the seventh… I can see it on my radar, the last two emeralds are on the move," Tails said while pointing on a little screen on his control panel. "And they're both headed for Angel Island…"

"R-rouge knows where I'm taking the Emeralds… and I suppose Eggman knows the same…" Sonic explained. "So I think it must be Rouge and Shadow who have that last emerald."

"And since Eggman's headed for Angel Island, it'll be easy to find him and take it off of him," Tails said optimistically. "It'll take about twelve hours to return. We have plenty of time to spare after that."

Knuckles returned thirty minutes later with the Emerald. It was time to take off. "Tails… bring me somewhere warm, please…" Sonic groaned, sounding half asleep.

"Yeah, of course, once you get off of me I can fly you to somewhere warm!" Tails complained and shook Sonic off of him, the hedgehog dropped off of his brother's lap and onto the floor.

"Fine, fine… I'm getting out," Sonic grumbled. He climbed out of the Tornado and onto the left wing of the plane. Knuckles passed his emerald to Tails where it could be kept safe inside of the cockpit, Sonic did the same. No longer in possession of the emeralds, the hedgehog felt his urge to use his powers decrease.

"If I put them all in this box, they won't be detected easily by anyone else who has an emerald tracking device, so whoever happens to be on the island when we return won't see it coming," Tails said with confidence and put the five emeralds inside of dark black box, low down in the front of the cockpit. "I know the others can't have such technology because I'm picking up the last two emeralds on my radar… we can do this."

Tails' words were reassuring. Sonic smiled, he was going to make it for sure!


	12. Chapter 12

Tails kept an eye on the radar, noticing something important.

"One of the emeralds is a lot closer to Angel Island than the other one is; either Shadow and Rogue, or Eggman will get there first," Tails said worriedly.

"That bat better not get there before us! She'll steal the emerald!" Knuckles snarled.

"But if it's Eggman we might be in even more trouble! He'll stop us from performing the cure. The only way we can do this is we get there before him, cut him off, and take the emerald from him," Tails argued. "We're ahead of one of them, if it's Eggman then we can meet Shadow and Rouge on the island, and they can help us take him on."

"Assuming that it is Rouge and Shadow that has the emerald and not someone else," Knuckles said pessimistically.

Sonic had nothing to say about the situation. As he rode on the wing of the plane, he began to feel dizzy while a shooting pain flowed through the muscles in his limbs like blood through the veins. Beginning to lose his balance, Sonic panicked. The Tornado was flying over water, another inconvenient place to become paralysed with pain. A large bout of nausea added to his pain, and his vision went blurry. Vertigo took over, and he was unable to speak. The suffering hedgehog tried to call out to Tails to tell him to slow down the plane but it was too late. The hero lost balance and fell down to the ocean below.

"Sonic, what are you doing!?" Knuckles yelled. Tails heard this and turned around, so see the signs of a splash in the ocean below. "Tails, circle him!"

The fox nodded, decreased the altitude and kept his trail to a small loop that circled Sonic who'd just plummeted into the water and sunk below. He wasn't even able to splash about and keep above the water; his body had given up on him. Knuckles dived in to grab the hedgehog and bring him back up.

Meanwhile, Sonic was losing consciousness, and he was unaware of what was going on around him. Although, not much was going on around him, just water… miles and miles of it, in all directions. He began to see hallucinations and hear voices.

He saw purple and green, in the exact shades that his powers created. Stars, lines and static filled his view, like his brain had been filled with negative chaos. Flashes and pulses hurt his head. In a normal situation, the hedgehog would have closed his eyes to escape the flashes, but what if the flashes were behind his eye lids, how could he escape those? The voices plagued his mind and made the visions more violent.

"You're going to die… the negative chaos has taken over… the parasite is eating away at your muscles and chewing on your bones…" a sinister voice hissed in his mind. "Go on… expel some of it… it'll save you temporally, but in the long term it'll multiply and kill you more quickly and painfully…"

Sonic wanted to do as the voices said and use his shield to get air, but he couldn't. It was like he was in a coma… unable to move. Was he… floating? The air around him felt heavy and dense, was it even air, or something else?

WATER!

The hedgehog's eyes snapped open, which stung them painfully as the salty ocean water attacked his eyes like a million tiny lasers. He expelled the last of his oxygen in a panic and swallowed some of the water around him. The salt burnt his tongue and the back of his throat, filling his lungs and stomach. It was like there was no hope. His world went black and silent.

O

SONIC, WAKE UP, PLEASE!

The head of the dying hedgehog was filled with the voice of his friend, Tails. Sonic tried his best to let out a groan of some kind to let Tails and Knuckles know that he was still alive. Instead, all he could do was let out a ragged breath, but it did the same job.

"He's breathing…" Tails sighed with relief. Sonic wanted to open his eyes, but it hurt too much to, so he kept them shut. His muscles twitched but that caused pain also, so he stayed still.

"Sonic… I remembered to pack some pain relief in the Tornado, do you need it?" he asked. Sonic couldn't answer verbally, or nod his head. He didn't know how to answer. Tails put grabbed his brother's hand and held it tight. "Squeeze if you want pain relief- AAHH! Okay! I'll get it now! Let go!" he cried out.

Sonic had squeezed as hard as he could to make himself clear, he wanted- no, NEEDED pain relief, immediately. The hedgehog let go, allowing the fox to grab the pain relief from the storage in the back of the plane. Sonic heard the rattling, then the footsteps made as Tails returned to him.

"This may hurt a little…" Tails said. Sonic felt a sharp pain in his arm, but it was nothing compared to what he felt already, so he didn't complain. Tails must have used a large needle. "It may take up to ten minutes to work fully."

Sonic groaned in protest, he wanted it to work NOW. Within a few minutes, the pain began to subside, which enabled him to open his eyes and speak.

"Thank you… Tails…" Sonic said sincerely. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure exactly, not far from where you fell. We brought you to the closest land we could," Tails explained. "Tell me when you're ready to fly again."

"C-can I ride in the cockpit with you?" Sonic asked sheepishly.

"No Sonic, there's no room," Tails denied.

"But you let me do it before…" Sonic whined.

"That was when you were unconscious at Station Square… this is different. And it was a big risk, I can't fly the plane safely and keep up on my lap at the same time," Tails complained.

"Fine… but I need some time to feel better before we can go," Sonic huffed. He still felt dizzy, despite the decrease in pain. Then he thought of something. "If you couldn't fit me in the cockpit, h-how did you get me here?"

"_I_ had to carry you," Knuckles answered irritably. Sonic gave a nervous chuckle.

"Wasn't my fault I passed out," he said in defence.

"But, you shouldn't be in this much pain. We still have plenty of time to spare. You've used those powers, haven't you?" Knuckles asked threateningly.

"NO!" Sonic yelled, feeling his conscience kicking him as he lied.

"The energy must have multiplied faster than we thought," Tails said. "Which means we need to get back as soon as possible!"

At this, Sonic brought himself to his feet slowly, being careful not to cause himself to pass out again. "Let's go, I'll try my hardest not to fall off, and I'll try harder to say something if I feel myself dropping,"

"No way Sonic, you're staying on the right wing with me," Knuckles said, grabbing his arm with both hand and pulling him over to his side.

"Aww, but I don't like the right wing, I'm a communist…" Sonic whined, then smirked at Tails, who smiled back.

"You certainly still have life you Sonic, we'll make it. The negative chaos hasn't killed you as of yet," Knuckles said and pushed him onto the wing on the right. "I'll make sure you don't fall off."

"What if I fall and drag you down with me?" Sonic asked.

"You won't," Knuckles said simply through gritted teeth, with a slight smile. He hardened his grip. This made Sonic feel uneasy. "I haven't come all of this way and left the master emerald behind just to see you die." Knuckles' aggression and determination made Sonic feel uneasy, but at least he knew he was in safe hands.

"Is the pain gone now, Sonic?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded slightly.

"Nearly gone, I'll be fine."

"Let's go then!"

And that began to the last flight to Angel Island, all three of them were unsure of whether they would make it in time.


	13. Chapter 13

Sonic felt his heart rate increase as Angel Island came into view a few miles away. This was it; they'd made it. Tails looked to Sonic with a wide smile, and Sonic looked back with a weak one. There were dark circles forming under the hedgehog's eyes, his skin was growing paler, and his whole body looked frail. If he managed to survive this, Sonic had a feeling he'd have a long road to full recovery. His whole body felt numb at that moment, especially his right arm, which Knuckles still had a tight hold of.

Tails put the plane into landing mode, and it slid across the floor on its wheels. Sonic didn't collapse off of the wing this time, instead he jumped down with Knuckles. The hedgehog leaned against the red one slightly, finding it hard to keep his balance. Knuckles helped the hero find his feet, then let him go. Tails jumped out of the plane and ran to see if Sonic was okay. The hedgehog was standing, and smiling with confidence, which gave Tails the sign that he was okay. The three looked at each other then walked forward, towards the Master Emerald shrine.

Sonic sighed with relief when he saw Shadow and Rouge at the shrine. Rouge was sitting on top of the Master Emerald and Shadow was stood beside it. Seeing this, Knuckles' eyes narrowed, he ran towards the Emerald.

"Get off of the Master Emerald, bat!" he yelled as he ran towards Shadow and Rouge. The echidna was holding up his fists, running at full speed. Before he could reach the female, Shadow stood in front of the emerald. Knuckles stopped right in front of the dark hedgehog. The both of them were stuck in a silent stare of hatred. Rouge casually hovered over the Emerald and floated down to the floor.

Sonic and Tails followed, the Sonic Heroes stood opposite Team Dark. Sonic looked Shadow in the eyes hopefully.

"Shadow, are you going to give me your emerald?" the blue one asked. Shadow narrowed his eyes. The dark hedgehog took out the emerald, making Sonic's eyes light up. Suddenly, he lifted his hand with the emerald in, punching Sonic in the chin, then kicked him right in the torso, sending the blue one flying backwards. The hedgehog slid across the grass while groaning in pain.

Sonic looked up to see his attacker walk towards him. Shadow put his foot over Sonic's back and pressed down on his spine.

"Shadow, what are you doing!?" Tails yelled. The dark one turned around with a sinister smile and looked at the young one.

"Hmph, I know you're all faking. I will get those chaos powers," Shadow said with determination.

"But Shadow, can't you see how sick he looks. Sonic _is_ dying," Rouge said worriedly. Shadow gave a scoff and looked back down at the suffering hedgehog. "I didn't come here with you to let Sonic die! Just look at him!"

Sonic looked up at Shadow with his tired eyes, showing the dark circles underneath them. His fur was no longer a shimmering cobalt blue, but a scruffy, unsaturated blue. His skin, also pale and unsaturated. Shadow's eyes widened slightly and removed his foot from Sonic's back, giving the blue one a chance to slowly and painfully rise from the ground. "Faker… how did this happen?"

"It's the negative chaos energy… it's like a parasite…" Sonic rasped. "We need to use the emeralds… before… ugh…" Sonic fell to his knees again, holding his chest. He breathed heavily as his eyes tightened in pain. "Ugh… I think the pain relief's worn off…" the hero now collapsed onto the floor completely.

"Pull yourself together, Faker!" Shadow yelled and attempted to pull him up, but stepped back as Sonic began to spew out a thick, dark purple substance. The hedgehog coughed and choked then rolled onto his back, wheezing in agony. Tails ran to the Tornado the get another needle, Sonic needed pain relief desperately.

"Think he's lying now, Shadow?" Rouge teased. "Still think it's a good idea to get those powers?"

"Hmph…" Shadow refused to admit his mistake. He turned around and walked over to the closest of the pillars that surrounded the Master Emerald. The dark one put his green emerald on top of it.

"We shouldn't put the emeralds up there yet, Eggman could take it when he arrives!" Knuckles exclaimed. Shadow gave a short chuckle.

"Let him try."

Their attention was caught when they heard Sonic scream out.

"Can't the needle be smaller!?" Sonic cried out.

"It won't be as effective if it's a little needle, it needs to go right in. Trust me Sonic, I don't enjoy hurting you!" Tails exclaimed back.

Shadow scoffed and turned away from the struggling pair.

"You need to heal up quickly now, Eggman is very close, you can't be vulnerable like that while he's here," Tails warned.

"It doesn't matter if Sonic's vulnerable, I can beat Eggman without him," Shadow said, making fists.

"Wait, I thought Sonic told you he's dead!" Rouge said, sounding confused.

"Hmph, told you he was a liar…" Shadow said arrogantly.

"You said he was lying about the negative chaos energy, not Eggman," Rouge teased.

"No, I just said he was faking!" Shadow argued back. Rouge sighed, knowing that Shadow would not listen to reason, he always believed he was right. She left him to it.

"You're not fighting Eggman alone, Shadow. I want a turn with him," Knuckles said aggressively. Shadow rolled his eyes, he wasn't going to argue.

As Shadow and Knuckles got read to fight, Tails carried Sonic across the Island to a safer place, he didn't want to the hedgehog to be open to attacks in the middle of the floor.

"Thanks Tails…" Sonic grunted in pain. "I'll join all of you when I'm ready."

When Sonic was safely sitting behind the Master Emerald shrine, Tails ran back to the Tornado to park that in a safe place also, close to Sonic, because the Chaos Emeralds were stored there. Then… he arrived.

In his Eggmobile, Eggman flew over to the Island. Shadow and Knuckles stood at the front of the group, ready to fight. Rouge and Tails stood by the Master Emerald.

"Where is Sonic?" Eggman asked miserably.

"Oh, don't worry, he's not dead, he's alive and well," Shadow teased, ominously. "We're taking that Emerald so he can survive!"

"What, this?" Eggman held his emerald out in his hand with a smirk. "You know what… go ahead!" Eggman was enthusiastic when he said those words and even threw the emerald down towards the heroes.

"WHAT?" the four exclaimed. Sonic's ears pricked up when he hear this in the background. What was Eggman up to?


	14. Chapter 14

Shadow cautiously stepped forward and took the emerald.

"Something's going on here… and we're not falling for it," Knuckles threatened. "Everyone stay on guard…"

Eggman sat in his Eggmobile looking smug.

"I realise that I'm never going to win, so I might as well just give up here…" he said with a smirk.

"Then why are you so smug?" Rouge asked as Shadow placed the last emerald on one of the pillars. Tails went to collect the other five. Eggman didn't answer. There was a nerve-racking silence as the emeralds were placed.

"Sonic, you can come out now-" Tails was cut off by the sound of coughing. The fox flew to the other side of the alter to see Sonic coughing up more of the purple substance. "Sonic, you're gonna be cured now, we did it!"

"No… something, isn't right. Why would Eggman do this?" Sonic asked, pushing Tails away.

"We're all on guard in case he's trying something. Trust me, Sonic. This is our only hope," Tails said desperately. Sonic got up slowly; his legs shook in weakness, and he struggled to walk. The pain had gone, but the weakness stayed.

The hedgehog appeared from around the corner and looked at Eggman with pure hatred. Keeping his guard up, he walked over to the front of the shrine and up the steps. He watched from the small height as Tails took the rest of the emeralds from the Tornado to the pillars. Sonic felt his heart beat quicken; it got faster and stronger. He could feel it all over his body; he could even hear his pulse in in his head.

This was it.

Tails stood back, so did everyone else apart from Knuckles, who walked up to the Master Emerald and began his 'Servers' chant.

Sonic felt as though he'd been brought before a deity, and this was judgement day. If this didn't work then he would die, but if it did, he could go on living and carry on as usual. His breath became ragged again. His shivers of nervousness could be heard in his quick breathing. It was unlike the bold hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, to be so terrified, but the past few days had put him through a lot of pain and work. It was all too much to just let his life end now.

He wanted to survive this and come out a stronger and a better person. He would live a brand new life, free of these powers that threatened to take his existence, and become liberated from the fear of sudden death. If he was going to die, he hoped it would be a hero's death, in battle, at a much older age. Not as a teenager, by a parasite that ate his insides.

Sonic turned around to look at Tails. The fox could have sworn he saw tears in Sonic's eyes, tears that Sonic was holding back.

Half way through the chant, Knuckles stopped.

"Something isn't right here…" he said darkly. He ran to the purple emerald and snatched it off of the stand. "Sonic, where did you find this emerald?"

"In Water Palace," Sonic answered.

"It's fake."

Sonic fell to his knees. How could this have happened? It felt like a normal chaos emerald, it was easy to fall for it. All of that bother he went through in Water Palace was all for nothing. He nearly died getting that emerald and it turned out to be a fake. And now they were at Angel Island with little time to spare. Sonic felt as though his life force was draining from him, bit by bit each second, partly because his time was running out and partly because… he'd lost all hope.

"If that's a fake, where's the real emerald?" Tails exclaimed.

"Mwahahahahaha!" Eggman exclaimed from a few yards away. The group turned around and turned to him in shock, whatever the evil genius had done, none of them could have anticipated it. "It's right here!"

Sonic turned around all of a sudden with his eyes wide in shock and anger. His teeth were clenched as he watched Eggman reveal the purple emerald, taken from a small black box in the cockpit of his Eggmobile. A box similar to the one Tails used to store their emeralds. Tails turned to the Tornado when he heard it beep.

"The radar's picked up the Emerald now… I wasn't the only one with the technology to block the energy signals!" Tails exclaimed.

"We can still take the emerald now while there's still a chance-" Shadow began but was interrupted by a large wail.

Sonic collapsed completely, laying on his stomach, crying on in agony. Not even the pain relief could numb this. No one moved, they just watched Sonic cry out… reaching his end.

"Aghh! That's it!" Shadow roared aggressively then appeared beside Eggman's flying vehicle in mid air. He kicked the machine with all of his might, it flew past the grass floor and off of the island. The emerald however, was in the dark hedgehog's hand. Eggman cried out from about a mile away as his machine plummeted to the ground.

Shadow threw the real purple Chaos Emerald to Knuckles who immediately slammed the Emerald down onto the pillar and began his chant. By then, Sonic was in agony, coughing out the purple substance again, wheezing and panting as his friends tried desperately to save him in time!

"Knuckles, go!" Tails yelled desperately.

"There's no time for the chant, Master Emerald, just save him!" Knuckles shouted at the top of his voice.

Rogue grabbed Shadow's hand in anticipation, the suspense was killing the both of them.

The sky began to flash around them like lightning. The Master Emerald flashed also, in sync with the sky. Sonic took in a long deep breath before he was zapped with a bright green stream of light from the Emerald in front of him, then with lights from all of the emerald around him.

Green, silver, cyan, purple, red, yellow and blue, all zapping him with their power as Sonic tried desperately to hold on to the last inkling of life he had left. His muscles were torn, his bones were softened, his internal organs had given up on him… but he would not give up on his friends.

Sonic couldn't feel any difference as he was zapped by the light, only pain. The hedgehog managed to pick himself up, he stood on his feet, but the nausea and vertigo stayed, caused him to stumble backwards and collapse against the Master Emerald. Taking in a long and agonising breath, he said his last words…

"I'm… _sorry_…"

All was silent, the Chaos Energy transfer had stopped, and so had Sonic.

* * *

**Thanks to those who have sticked with this story until now, both reviewers and silent readers. There's just one more chapter to go.**


	15. Chapter 15

No one could bring themselves to speak. Tragedy had struck, leaving the four unable to say anything. They were too late. But… it… can't be!

Knuckles walked over to Sonic to look down at the hedgehog's crippled and weakened body in sorrow. Tails began to cry to himself silently.

"How Sonic? We were early," Knuckles questioned with a raspy voice, as though he was trying not to cry himself. "We had time to spare; it's not been the full two days yet… perhaps Tikal was wrong."

"Summon her… see if she knows a way to bring him back!" Tails cried out desperately.

"Tikal, we need you!" Knuckles yelled. The female echidna appeared by the Master Emerald, near Sonic, gasping as she noticed his limp body.

"He… didn't make it? But… there's still time to spare!" She exclaimed.

"Yes… what's happened?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, he must have used his powers," Tikal said solemnly. "It's the only reason for the premature death…"

Knuckles' concerned expression changed to a furious one.

"I should have known he was lying to us!" he snarled and banged his fist against one of the pillars.

"Sonic… lied to me? Why?" Tails sobbed.

"I suppose he didn't want you to worry…" Tikal said softly. She walked up to Sonic, bent down and put her hand on the blue hedgehog's chest. She cringed. "He… must have been in a lot of pain… he's completely infested with the power…"

There was a moment of silence until it was disrespectfully broken by evil laughter.

"Wuahahaha!"

The group turned around to see Eggman return in his flying machine.

"ARGH! Eggman!" Knuckles roared and ran towards him.

"Don't keep him all to yourself!" Shadow snarled and ran after him also.

"Not so fast!"

The both of them stopped on the spot when they saw a small canon emerge from the front of the Eggmobile.

"You don't want to end up like Sonic, do you?"

Shadow and Knuckles stood on the spot feeling tense, all of them were in stalemate.

"Now that Sonic's dead, none of you have a chance to defeat me!" Eggman said triumphantly.

"Ha! Sonic wasn't the only one in the group who could fight!" Knuckles bared his teeth.

"But he was the one holding you all together… face it, you're a useless team without him," Eggman teased.

"Oh yeah! We'll show you!" Knuckles snarled, tempted to lash out at him, but he couldn't, no one could, not when they were held at gunpoint.

"Sonic isn't dead…" Tikal said softly. "He's… sleeping…"

"What?" Tails said hopefully.

"But there's no way to wake him up, not while he's infected with the negative chaos…"

"He's as good as dead then, which is good enough for me!" Eggman jeered. "Now all of you, prepare to meet your doom-"

SMASH!

"No way, Egg head!"

Shadow, Knuckles, Tails and Rouge all stood with mouths agape and widened eyes. Eggman plummeted to the floor at the smash of a large hammer.

"My cannon! It's ruined!" the scientist cried out.

"Amy!?" Knuckles and Tails yelled in disbelief.

"Now, where's Sonic?" she said seriously. The two boys pointed to Sonic's limp body, terrified of Amy's reaction.

"Oh no! Sonic!" she cried out and ran over to him. "Is he… gone?"

"Yes…" Tikal said solemnly. Amy broke down in tears and wrapped her arms around her lost lover.

"Sonic! No! It's all my fault, I shouldn't have bothered you! It's my fault that you didn't get here in time!" she screamed out, bawling.

The girl's weeping stopped when she heard coughing and spluttering and felt the being in her arms… struggle.

"G-get off of me… _Amy_!" Sonic cried out and jumped out of her grasp. There, beside the broken mess, was the hero, very much alive, but looking traumatised and breathing heavily.

"It seems… there was a way of awakening him," Tikal said, feeling uncomfortable.

"Hey! I feel great!" Sonic exclaimed with a wide smile. "What did you guys do?"

"Nothing… Amy just hugged you… and you woke up!" Tails exclaimed and turned to Amy. "What did you do to him?"

"Like you said, I only hugged him… and it must have shocked him or something," Amy said in confusion then turned to Sonic irritably. The blue one gave a nervous laugh then looked away to avoid eye contact.

"I sense a lack in negative chaos within you, Sonic. You'll live to fight another battle," Tikal said cheerfully.

Tails ran over to his brother and hugged him with all of his might.

"Sonic! I thought I'd lost you!" he said ecstatically. Sonic returned the embrace.

"I'm sorry I worried you, Tails," Sonic said softly.

"You've got some explaining to do, Sonic!" Knuckles snarled. "You said you didn't use your powers!"

Sonic's ears dropped and he looked nervous.

"Hehe… about that…" Sonic gulped and his voice went squeaky. "I… did…"

"You lied!" Knuckles yelled.

"I know… I didn't feel good about it either… just didn't want a lecture off of you guys. It all turned out fine in the end though, didn't it?" Sonic said nervously. Knuckles sighed and turned away. "C'mon, lighten up!"

"At least now, he's immune to all negative chaos infections," Tikal said. Sonic gave a wide smile, he'd done it. Sonic had survived and come out stronger, just like he'd hoped.

Meanwhile, Eggman was slowly trying to creep away, eager to escape without a beating. Unluckily for him, a dark hedgehog caught wind of his escape attempt and teleported in front of him. A dark shade loomed over the doctor and he was met with an ominous figure looking down on him.

"You're not going… anywhere…" Shadow's smooth and sinister voice sounded with a malicious smirk. He grabbed the scientist by his collar. Rouge ran over to the hedgehog and the genius and kicked him in the back of the head.

"That's that dealt with," she said smugly while brushing her hands together.

"I wanted him to suffer, Rouge! Why did you knock him out?" Shadow complained and dropped the man's limp body on the floor in disgust.

"I need you to take him to GUN," Rouge requested.

"Not that cursed establishment… I don't want anything to do with them!" Shadow said and folded his arms.

Sonic walked up to them with all seven emeralds floating around him.

"I can do it for you!" Sonic said cheerfully.

"Sonic, there's no need to go super just to do me a favour, Shadow can do it effortlessly," Rouge said.

"It's not effortlessly, it does drain me after use!" Shadow snapped.

"No, I don't need to go super… I think I've nailed Chaos Control now," Sonic said arrogantly. Shadow's eyes widened.

"But-"

Sonic grabbed Eggman and yelled, "Chaos Control." Then he was gone.

Shadow couldn't believe it, he'd been overtaken by Sonic again, and he had all of the emeralds. The dark hedgehog let out a cry of frustration to the skies.

"FAKER!"

Everyone watched in amusement as Shadow had a mini tantrum over Sonic's improvements.

Tikal was absorbed back into the Master Emerald with a smile and a wave. Tails got ready to take off in his Tornado. Amy ran over the bridge after Sonic; there was no way she could get to him in time, but she kept trying. Shadow also left with a scowl while Rouge trailed behind him. Knuckles stayed by his Master Emerald and continued to guard it, feeling thankful that no one had stolen it while he was gone.

When Eggman was locked away and dealt with, Sonic took the time to relax. The hero still kept his guard up as there was no doubt that the genius would find his way out of prison somehow. And there were still other possible threats. Who knew what would threaten to take over the planet next? Another alien, ancient reawakened power, experiment gone wrong?

Whatever stood to challenge Sonic, he would definitely triumph and become stronger because of it. He would live to fight another day, always.

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**Final Author's Note: Thank you all very much for reading and reviewing this story. I'm glad my first story on this site was such a success, and I hope to improve with the next. If there are any critics reading, I would really appreciate some constructive criticism.**

**Final Reminder: I own none of the settings or characters in this story, they all belong to SEGA.**


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